EJH, I think he’s just conforming to the naming convention that the NPB has published regarding the “new” team. I’ve been avoiding using their full name, just sticking with either “Yokohama” or “BayStars,” but not “Yokohama BayStars.” (In fact, I think that they dropped the capital ‘S’ as well.)

Nonetheless, Patrick gets a lot of coverage in the mainstream press, so following the naming conventions posted by the league is in his best interest.

In the original press release for the new team name, it as said that when the team was represented by just one character that it continue to be 横. However, today’s Nikkan Sports (January 13, 2012) is using “D” in the Open-sen schedule, the only one to use a non-kanji.

Patrick is correct. The press is using DeNA more and more to name the club. It just takes a little longer for old boys like me to come around.

Back to the subject at hand — Renyel Pinto appears to be quite a character. He was pitching well for the Marlins in 2010 (2.70 ERA in 20 appearances) when they released him in late June. The Cardinals quickly signed him and released him only a month later.

As far as I can tell, he didn’t pitch anywhere during the summer of 2011 (at least baseball reference doesn’t list him pitching anywhere, although he could conceivably have pitched in Taiwan, Korea or Mexico). He pitched extremely well in the Venezuelan Winter League this year, which was apparently the Hawks’ motivation to give him such a big contract.

Pinto had numerous run-ins with the courts in his three or four years in Miami, including driving without a license, being sued by his sports management company and being sued for an unpaid $230,000 jewelry bill. For what it’s worth, baseball reference lists him weighing 280 lbs.

Given all that, it’s a little hard to see him lasting for long on a Japanese team. Obviously, the Hawks were thinking about his MLB career 3.62 in 231 IP and the fact that his 8.6 K’s per 9 IP. Still, one has to expect the Hawks are in for a wild ride next year.

The Hawks have a bit of a short leash with foreign pitchers — Anthony Lerew, Kameron Loe and Justin Germano all only received very minimal opportunities to play. This doesn’t bode well for Pinto, but you never know.

- How about a top 5 (college, H.S, industrial…) have they talked about this in Japan yet?

Shukan Baseball has already had two 2012 Draft specials and another magazine has also published a full magazine of potential 2012 draftees. Unfortunately, they don’t rank them 1-50 but have the presented pitchers, catchers, infielders, then outfielders. So it’s kind of hard to pick out the currently regarded as top five.

Even then the ordering in Shukan Baseball is usually not completely reflective of how the players grade as prospects. Yakyu Kozo has more explicit ratings, and the Draft Reports site is a good indicator of how much attention these players are getting from the teams (http://draftrepo.blog47.fc2.com/).

Thanks Patrick! I sent a email to Kinokuniya… They ask for a particular (specific) magazine, maybe number or publication month . Could you specify the best draft preview magazine so I can answer them back?

I live about 15 minutes from Olympic Stadium in Montreal… The last japanese player I saw over here was probably Tomo Okha so I emailed the New York store.